narutofanonfandomcom-20200222-history
Tengetsu Games: Heiwa Uchiha vs Mukuro
Noon had just fell on the 's sky, blanketing it with the luminous rays of the surprisingly harsh sun. It was evident that today's events would need an environment free of all obstructions; the environment fit that definition to a tee. All that could be seen, stretching all the way to the horizon, was nothing more than cracked earth, loose rocks and peculiarly large boulders. The barren environment had, no doubt, been the scene of a great battle that rendered all possible growth useless. It was perfect for a battle of this scale, one of the Heavenly Moon. The first participant looked upon the environment with...no discernible facial expression. The man's face was covered by an elaborate mask worn by actors within the , or even more specifically, hung on totem poles. None of his features could be seen besides his bright green eyes, which scanned the horizon with no emotion whatsoever. Despite the notable heat, the man wore a surprisingly layered outfit. A noticeable feature was his almost tattered, white that supported baggy bell sleeves in addition to black lining at its edge. In addition to this, he wore a similarly colored hakama along with simple and white . However, what truly defined his outfit was the elaborate he wore. A darker grey in coloration, it also had shorter sleeves, a red ribbon at the torso and red obi at the waist to fasten it to his body. On the left side of his waist were two katana. The man, appearing in his rather elaborate attire, was no other than the Hōzuki Castle Master, Mukūrō. Though, to the participants of this tournament, all he would be regarded as was Tengu. And so, he patiently awaited for his opponent, who he had been eager to fight. In what seemed to be the blink of an eye, appeared a young man a few metres away from his opponent, kneeling with one leg. A small fissure on the ground was visible beneath his feet as the young man stood up. At first glance, he appeared to be a mere child. Clad in a reddish-brown with orange lining. Underneath this clothing, a black robe could be spotted, slightly visible around his chest. Black pants were concealed beneath his yukata, which stretched up to his calf. Finishing off his attire were black sandals, popularly worn during the . He looked at his adversary with no less than a smile on his countenance, letting out a small bow of respect. “Tengu, is it..? How are you in this fine day?” the man softly spoke to his opponent, his tone being warm and welcoming. Being the Mizukage, he was expected to be respected and not the other way around. However, Heiwa Uchiha's fair and peaceful nature disagreed with such a stereotype, and would always treat his acquaintances with honor and dignity. “Well, shall we begin?” Tengu, with all due sincerity, bowed his head towards the figure before him. Anybody with common sense, regardless of the situation, would show at least this much respect to the person who managed to keep the islands of the in a state outside of civil war. Finishing his bow, the man's haori blew to the right with the advent of sudden winds from the left, an indication of the tension between both combatants facing one another. There was stillness, silence, which Tengu broke suddenly. "I don't mean to be rude, Lord Mizukage." He began to state, as his right hand softly touched the hilt of his unsealed blade situated closest to his body. "Out of due respect, it is only natural for me to give you the honor of the first attack, no?" The moment he stated that, Tengu's stance was completely natural. He appeared almost ill-prepared, but at the same time, the randomness this position gave him would surely work out in his favor. "From my...'dealings' I have heard that the Mizukage is an Uchiha. If so, he must possess those eyes, along with some other, notorious skills...this should be interesting." A stern look appeared on Heiwa's countenance, and for a moment, he blinked. Opening his eyes, they were crimson with three tomoe in each, glaring into the man's eyes. His look was that of a fierce and determined warrior, as if he was glaring into his opponent's soul. His right hand grasped the hilt of his blade, which rested in the scabbard in his left. A tiny high-pitched sound could be heard when the young man drew out his sword. Holding it with both hands infront of him, he looked into the eyes of his adversary through his mask. He knew not to underestimate anyone within these tournaments. The ground below him cracked, and he flickered before appearing two steps infront of his adversary, intent on swinging his blade horizontally towards Tengu's abdomen. Mukūrō averted his gaze from Heiwa's activated Sharingan and proceeded to notice the blade, all the while keeping the sound at the back of his mind. The sudden appearance of Heiwa cracking the ground did not shock Mukūrō in the slightest. Instead, the moment that Heiwa began to draw his sword, Mukūrō responded with a similar action, albeit only drawing his sword half-way from its sheath with such composure and speed that the following clash would cause a shockwave to form outward from both combatants. Remaining silent as his gaze was focused on Heiwa's blade and footwork, Mukūrō's chakra proceeded to envelop his blade in a small coat, before suddenly forcing a wave of pressure to be emitted from his being, the force behind it rendering even the ground beneath him beginning to crack, all with the intent of pushing Heiwa back a considerable distance and resuming the battle from square one. Heiwa's eyes could see it all. Pure chakra repelled him from his position, rendering his offensive manouvure to be null. Being sent away, he manouvured his body to flip, landing on both feet with grace and finessé. He was nothing short of impressed, yet his facial expressions did not discern it. He remained stoic and devoid of emotion, not uttering a single word. His eyes gazed into that of the Tengu a short distance away. The man before him was certainly more than meets the eye, and so he decided to test his mettle. His right hand, which tightly held his blade, stabbed it into the ground infront of him, allowing it to remain still and for it to be drawn at a moment's notice. His hands then joined into each other, with raised index and middle fingers to form the tiger handseal. Taking in a deep breath, the man's eyes narrowed, and from his mouth, a head of a dragon --made of purely golden flames-- was expelled. The sheer heat of these flames was enough to burn human flesh with little effort, and this monstrosity charged towards the Tengu. Heiwa grabbed his blade tightly, his eyes fixating themselves on the Tengu as his calves tensed. Mukūrō's eyes, upon confirming the existence of the massive shadow underneath him, looked upwards to the dragon construct before him. "Mukūrō..." A voice echoed in his head, "You have no need to be scared of these flames." Mukūrō didn't understand the meaning of those words until now. Underneath his mask, the man regarded as Tengu smirked slightly. Without any warning, a slight film of chakra surrounded his being and the flames Heiwa sent out so willingly began to be broken down into its base component: raw chakra. Of course, this was not enough. Mukūrō knew standing still would result in injury. Therefore, he did the only thing he knew how to. The man shifted his left leg back suddenly, grabbing his blade once again. Chakra flowed once more, and his arm moved with incredible drawing speed. Rather than the previous, incomplete, Iaidō maneuver, this one truly expressed a glint of Mukūrō's power. During the sudden slash, his chakra had integrated into the flames, before violently bursting. Consequently, the flames violently exploded internally, leaving nothing more than fragments of flickering golden flames that, with a wave of his sword, he drew in towards himself, the chakra-based fire being converted into a brilliant blue before being completely assimilated by Mukūrō. Even with such a maneuver, Mukūrō did nothing more than remain apathetic. Albeit, his refusal to look into Heiwa's eyes was not due to arrogance, but rather, simple caution from unintended side-effects. Heiwa's eyes widened in shock. His attack turned into chakra right before his crimson eyes. It was something he had never witnessed before, and this made him ponder on what the man before him is truly capable of. “The flames were merely turned into chakra?!... What is he?” Heiwa pondered. Suddenly, an idea struck Heiwa's mind, and his stoic appearance crept up in his visage once more, narrowing his eyes to analyze the man. Grasping the sword before him tightly, he pulled his arm back, and swung it towards his adversary. However, Heiwa did something different: instead of engaging the man before him in kenjutsu as expected, he threw the sword towards him horizontally. The sword, in mid-air, was reminiscent of a shuriken, violently aimed towards Tengu's waist. Heiwa's calves tensed, and his fist clenched as he looked on with scrutiny. “Let's see if you can do that thing with inanimate objects, shall we?” the young man continued to converse within his mind, his eyes gazing forward, observing the smallest detail. Mukūrō directed his eyes towards the projectile before him. He was surprised at the inefficiency of this Mizukage. Any other would have used their simple logic and employed an actual projectile — even a well-thrown or would have sufficed. Nevertheless, Mukūrō capitalized on this advantage well. Given that his sword was still facing upwards, Mukūrō decided on the most simple maneuver available. He waited for but a moment, until the flung sword was only a meter away from him, before suddenly bringing his sword down in an arc-shaped slash. The momentum behind the slash caused the thrown sword to stop in its path, leaving it lying on the floor without a master. "I must admit," Mukūrō spoke, in the voice of Tengu, "I did not expect a Mizukage...to be so foolish as to throw away his weapon. But, just for your satisfaction...yeah, I can't absorb physical things. But being granted that knowledge won't help you much." Heiwa was many things. Strange, charismatic, funny, goofy. But not stupid. With each action, Heiwa knew the end-result through sheer intuition, and this was no different. His blade, being tightly held in Heiwa's grasp multiple times, had been marked with a special seal formula, which allowed Heiwa to transport himself to it at whim. In what seemed to be less than a blink of an eye, Heiwa appeared infront of Tengu, launching a thunderous punch to the man's face, which --if it connects-- would surely send the Tengu backwards. The sheer and unrivalled speed of his teleportation made it all the more difficult for his adversary to be able to defend or evade in time. Additionally, the Tengu seemed to be viewing the man's action as stupidity, adding the element of surprise and making it all the more difficult to evade. Mukūrō's sudden realization caused him to fall slightly short of Heiwa's sudden appearance before him. Using the small opening provided by Heiwa collecting the force required for his punch, Mukūrō sent out another rhythmic shockwave of chakra that managed to slow down the punch enough to allow Mukūrō the time required to shift backward with a step of great force initiated by his left foot, causing him to disappear and subsequently reappear a notable distance away from Heiwa. "Heh," Mukūrō chuckled, in the voice of Tengu once again. "You finally got me to move a single step and you didn't even manage to properly touch me...how disappointing." Through his taunts, however, Mukūrō sharpened his senses considerably. That was the first and last time he got caught by that sort of trick due to his carelessness, "I'm glad I was exposed to Resonance and Idaten earlier on in my life...otherwise his technique would have got me. Too foolish." As his thoughts settled, Mukūrō readjusted his stance slightly, shifting his sword to point towards Heiwa and keeping his feet spread in alignment with his shoulders. His body was relaxed, but at the same time, ready to combat anything that came his way. The young man watched as his offensive manouvure failed, albeit coming closest to landing a hit to Tengu thus far. His gaze was shifted to his adversary a fair distance from him. He swiftly picked up his blade, keeping his eyes fixated on the enemy. Heiwa now knew the man before him was of high calibre, so he decided to turn up the level of the fight. In what was --literally-- a blink, a of 9 interconnected dots was formed in both eyes. His eyes remained fixated on the masked man, refusing to look anywhere otherwise. His hands grasped the blade tightly, before stabbing the ground again. His hands swiftly moved as he performed handseals. A few moments later, Heiwa inhaled deeply, before spewing a massive quantity of water, gushing the ground and forming a small ocean right before the Tengu's eyes. The sudden spike in chakra before him immediately had Mukūrō understand his enemy's intentions. "Mangekyō Sharingan...no, it's of the higher variant. Tch." The man thought to himself, before realizing that Heiwa attempted to make the environment more favorable for himself. "Hmph, let's see you try." Tengu taunted, before clasping his hands together — with sword in hand — as he exclaimed, "Release!" The instant Mukūrō did so, he glowed with an aura of green. The result was the water gravitating towards him at a rapid speeds, for the man had temporarily unleashed his restrictions in order to accommodate for the large quantity of water and the manner in which it was spread. As the water rushed towards his being, rather than injuring him, it once again converted into raw chakra and fed his being adequately. Quickly absorbing all the water, Mukūrō immediately resealed his so-called chakra core. This action left a surplus of chakra exuding from his body, which he immediately directed towards his outstretched sword. Looking at the shadow of Heiwa, he accurately gauged his position and simultaneously completed the collection of chakra towards his sword, which he subsequently swung in a wide arc, sending out a powerful blast of raw chakra, its aim to completely obliterate Heiwa, which increased in speed as Mukūrō applied another wave of pressure through his sword, leaving no wastage of the massive heap of chakra he just absorbed. The powerful beam of energy directed towards Heiwa did not seem to faze him. An Uchiha specimen, his crimson eyes bore superiority to all others. And Heiwa had become quite a well-established shinobi through use of his eyes. The beem seemingly pierced Heiwa, however, upon closer inspection, Heiwa's chakra signature had disappeared from the face of the earth. One could see the man as merely an illusion without physical form what-so-ever. In the aftermath of the beam's attack, the young man regained full physical form. "I would've used it to finish this, but I'd merely feed him a buffet of chakra. So he'll use shadows now, easy..." the young man pondered. The young man gestured handseals, his crimson eyes remained focused on Tengu and thus indirectly limiting his visual scope. A few moments later, the young man spewed a massive wall of flames towards the man. He knew that the same end-result as before was possible, in-fact, it was imminent. However, Tengu would need to absorb the massive wall of flames in order to gain more chakra and, most importantly, he would need to absorb them in order to not get incinerated. However, things were not always as they seemed, especially with those unfortunate enough not to possess the blessed eyes that see heaven and earth. In the midst of the flames covering his view upon being expelled from his being, Heiwa had thrown his blade once more. However, it would be covered by the flames. The blade was swung forward, intent on slashing his foe whilst his focus was on the massive fire that had been garnered. However, Heiwa kept his eyes fixated on the man's chakra signature, as Tengu now knew Heiwa's deceptive skill as well what a Mizukage was truly capable of. "He's so flashy...what a one-trick pony." Mukūrō thought, confirming his thoughts was the fact that he could sense the residual chakra of the Flying Thunder God Technique seal within the blanket of flames. "Time to be clever." Mukūrō thought to himself, as he flowed chakra within his blade once again, before shifting his wrist slightly and subsequently raising his arm with incredible speed. He cut through the center of the sea of flames, at which the chakra that he sent into the flames through his blade violently exploded once more, forcing the flames to become nothing more than embers which all absorbed into his being. Although that did not go through all of the great flames before him. Consequently, Mukūrō stabbed his sword into the earth, flowing chakra within it before creating a shockwave in the direction that the flames were coming from using the chakra that Mukūrō previously absorbed. The potency of the shockwave was enough that it ripped through the earth, sending debris flying in the same direction and forced the flames to dissipate as they came closer. At the same time, it revealed the location of Heiwa's sword, which was incapable of withstanding the full brunt of the technique and movement of large rocks. It was battered by these rocks, therefore shifting in the opposite direction, causing Heiwa's tactic to become all but useless. Moreover, the shockwave continued to travel, with the intent of causing both injury to Heiwa via the attack's force and the rupturing of the earth beneath him. The eyes that saw heaven itself, were in Heiwa's sockets, and he could percieve the incoming shock-wave as clear as daylight. His own eyes glowed before his calf tensed to gain momentum. A second later he jumped upwards in a diagonal fashion to the left, subsequently avoiding the shock-wave and tremor. In that very moment, his eyes remained on the man before him. The man was still avoiding looking at Heiwa's eyes, and he would continue to use that to his advantage. His eyes focused behind the man, where a repulsive void was formed. A rift in the space-time continuum, connecting the plane of existence with the depths of Heiwa's Dimension: a sea of lava. Not only would it be released in a vortex with power, the small opening would also lead to the pressure skyrocketing. This made lava to be released behind him with such a strong force that it would literally seem like a cannon. Meanwhile, the young Heiwa grasped a scroll from the pocket of his yukata, looking on at his adversary. "To believe that I cannot sense the proximity of his Kamui technique...foolish." Mukūrō thought to himself, as he felt the dimensional void open behind him. In the instant that it opened, Mukūrō seemed to teleport away from the said area, although in reality he simply leaped skywards. However, given the pressure with which the lava was released, some was headed towards his direction. To compensate, Mukūrō subsequently ejected the remaining chakra in his foot through revitalizing it, increasing his speed in midair to the point where the lava was completely incapable of touching him. At the end of his maneuvering, Mukūrō ended up a significant distance behind the dimensional void spewing out lava, all of which was now directed towards Heiwa's location. In the meantime, Mukūrō readjusted his footing and kept his blade streaming with chakra to prepare for another spontaneous attack. Heiwa watched as his own creation made it's way towards him, and he merely looked at it without any discernible expressions. Without warning, another void appears before Heiwa's being, vacuuming the lava into another plane of existence once more. A moment later, Heiwa also vanished into inexistance, appearing on the ground and looking at the Tengu a high distance above. Slamming his palms on the ground, a cylindrical barrier enveloped a radius of 20 metres from the epicentre, stretching high above to cover his adversary. The barrier seemed to reach for the heavens, as the opening was found a distance so far that it goes to reach and cover the . Escape was something deemed difficult --if not impossible-- from this massive barrier. Mukūrō's descent was inevitable for he could not fly. As a result, he descended downwards towards Heiwa's location. At the same time, he realized the construction of the barrier enabled him to, rather easily, empower his being. In that instant, an aura enshrouded his being as the barrier's constitution began to weaken due to Mukūrō absorbing the chakra it composed of. The speed provided by this aura was reminiscent of an infamous technique of , which enabled him to plummet down as if he were a shooting star, absorbing the chakra of the barrier as he did so. Keeping his sword parallel to himself, he swung downwards with great force towards Heiwa's head, in an attempt to overpower Heiwa's concentration and dismantle the barrier in an instant. Heiwa saw what was reminiscent of a falling star approach his being and, quite frankly, it was quite exasperating. His tailed beast chakra levels had now begun to gradually diminish, and on top of that, the man seemed to be in peak condition, only using Heiwa's own chakra. He was simply irritated. With the descending man getting close, Heiwa merely looked at him, before his sword was sent towards Heiwa's head. In that very instant, a void appeared before Heiwa, enveloping and vaccuming the man before him. The technique was one of the highest calibre, nearly matching the Hiraishin in terms of speed whilst using a single eye. With both eyes, the process would be twice as fast, leaving a mere blink of an eye to respond to such an occurence. In addition to the speed of his Kamui, the man in question was travelling in his own unthinkable speed, and his own accumulated momentum would also play a part in terms of reacting in time. Heiwa's intent was to merely incapacitate the man through the use of the genjutsu that harboured his dimension, before he returned the man back to his dimension and cherish his victory, and at the moment, everything seemed to be going according to plan. "This man...is foolish." Mukūrō thought to himself as he sensed the sudden spike and formation of chakra from the sword approaching him from below. "Not good enough!" Tengu proclaimed, as the chakra that surrounded his being suddenly extended away from him in a circular shockwave, the resulting force changing the direction of Heiwa's incoming sword towards the barrier's perimeter. The resulting clash between the sword and the barrier caused the applied Kamui technique to begin absorbing the barrier in question. Due to the nature of the space—time ninjutsu, the entirety of the barrier was under danger. In response, Mukūrō kept himself moving downwards while remaining in the center of the barrier, awaiting his opponent's response to the maneuver recently conducted. Heiwa sighed as he stopped his barrier mentally, with his portal dwindling to nothingness. His body turned abstract, and could not be touched by any means. Using this method, Heiwa disappeared into the ground, rising up a few metres away, his gaze fixated on the enemy. "This chakra guy seems to like turning stuff into chakra, I have one last test up my sleeves... Let's see what he does to denser ninjutsu." He spoke from within his psyche, looking towards his opponent. "Rai, I need som--" he was interrupted before he finished his speech, a deep voice rising from within his mind-scape. "Say no more, kid..." he spoke, before Heiwa was encompassed by a large amount of chakra around him, looking towards his opponents. His eyes narrowed and his right hand was raised, spread palm that faced the sun. From his palm, a large crimson sphere had been formed above, before it was thrown at rapid speed towards Tengu. "Heh." Mukūrō snickered to himself as the barrier dissipated. While he was incapable of directly harming his opponent, he had made Heiwa's tactic useless. As his target's form disappeared before his eyes, Mukūrō slowed his descent through a half-somersault in mid-air, landing on his legs while causing the surrounding ground to shatter in the wake of his landing. He looked towards his opponent, who had formed a crimson sphere of energy in his palm. "Well..." Mukūrō thought in response to seeing this sudden development. "I should've known that reaction wasn't false..." Mukūrō had no time left to think. He couldn't head-on absorb all the chakra that made up the condensed projectile, so he went through a different method. He pointed his blade towards Heiwa's location, as he did so, he placed his palm gently on his abdomen. "Release, once more!" Within an instant, a massive surge of chakra surrounded Mukūrō in an aura before quickly converging into an azure sphere of his own. He fired it with great speed, focusing almost completely on penetration power. The result was that the collision of the two powers forced the Tailed Beast Ball to explode prematurely, releasing the dense quantity of chakra in a wave of crimson energy. "There we go. Thank you Heiwa-san." Due to the excess chakra being plentiful in quantity, Mukūrō intended to absorb all of it. However, he mistook the sheer power of the blast, despite it being rushed. For this reason, he channeled chakra into his sword once more, sending repeated swings in various directions towards the attack, cutting it apart and enabling him to absorb and integrate it into his physiology. Even Mukūrō was not capable of endless endurance, however. Upon reaching his limit, he quickly leaped upwards with a burst of chakra from his feet, enabling him to avoid the majority of the assault, leaving him with only light charring across his torso. "Looks like I can finally understand the strength of a Tailed Beast...Lord Mizukage." Tengu taunted the man, bracing his position as he regained his footing on the ground once more. He was a significant distance away from his opponent, albeit, this was intentional. He braced his position, awaiting to find an opening in Heiwa's assault and defeat him in one quick stroke. Heiwa's eyes remained on the enemy. Everything he had done during the entire battle had been embedded into the Uchiha's psyche, and his eyes watched as the man made his manouvure. A smirk appeared on his visage. The area the man landed on was one he too had been in. Tengu had his gaze on Heiwa. However, a deeper darkness lied doormant. Heiwa then began his manouvure, his hands clasping to form a mist thick with Heiwa's chakra. The mist covered them all, and Heiwa knew that the man could not sense him. However, it was not the true motive. Tengu has shown during the entire fight a sin. One of the deadliest known to man. Gluttony. He hungered for the chakra of Heiwa and, perhaps, others. The mist was filled with the chakra of Heiwa, and that was not even the true treachery of this technique. In the instant his very own mist was formed, a duplicate emerged from below and behind Tengu, as silent as the trained assassins of the Mist. He could not be heard or felt in any capacity. And as he rose behind, the sight was overruled, as well as sensing the portal made from his own chakra due to the mist disabling the sixth sense entirely. Immediately upon it's arrival, it's hand stretched to touch Tengu, whom would be instantaneously sent to another plane from the touch. In that very same moment, Heiwa, who stood afar, formed a similar portal diagonally infront of Tengu, ensuring that in case he attempted to escape by travelling foward or upwards, his demise would already be assured, and his defeat would be inevitable. "I'm growing bored of this man's repeated charades. Time to end this." Mukūrō thought to himself, as he noticed him about to use a hand seal. "Another chakra-taxing technique? Why!?" Mukūrō noticed the formation of mist in Heiwa's immediate vicinity and determined the density of the chakra within it. "Attempting to block my vision and my senses? I won't let you." Mukūrō gripped his blade tightly, smoothly moving his right arm in an arc formation along with his blade, cutting through the air in front of him as the chakra that he gathered within the sword's slash simultaneously was sent outwards as a massive wave of invisible energy that dispersed the created mist to the direction away from Mukūrō. Achieving this feat did not delay the Mizukage, however. He managed to sense the activation of multiple portals and quickly realized Heiwa's tactic. In accordance, prior to him being able to achieve the activation of the technique, Mukūrō swiftly increased his base speed and, with but a single step to the left, disappeared from sight momentarily. His steps could be faintly heard. He approached his target in a fashion similar to skating, achieving this feat through using excess chakra from his previous absorption to silence his footing while exponentially increasing his speed. He had closed the distance in only a few moments, once again releasing a stream of vibrations stemming from his chakra that intended to completely displace Heiwa's stance. At the same time, Mukūrō changed the position of his blade to his left side, before suddenly attempting a horizontal slash at Heiwa's most vital region — his eyes — using the excess momentum from his previous moments to vastly enhance the slash's speed, in hopes of completely finishing this battle in this one strike. Fate Heiwa showed signs of anger, looking forth towards Tengu. For the first time in the battle, he was quite...disappointed. "Ugh... This guy... I'm tired of masked freaks in my life." he spoke, his crimson eyes keeping the man's pattern of movement in check. As Tengu had glided forth towards Heiwa, his movements, in addition to the blessed eyes, was predictable for Heiwa. The moment the Tengu swung his blade to slash Heiwa, his joints had already given the young Uchiha a visual image of his attacks which, suprisingly, he had difficulty keeping up with. Yet, in a moment's notice, the blade simply passed him by. The blade, upon passing the image of Heiwa's body, met with a portal, intent on sucking the blade, along with Tengu, into another plane of existence. This portal was formed, not by the Heiwa which Tengu attempted to strike, but the clone which the Tengu failed to acknowledge prior... This replica had been keeping it's eyes on Tengu's movement and momentum as the latter glided towards the real Heiwa. Using both eyes to double the speed to, literally, an instant, the clone had prepared to form the portal right infront of Tengu as he charged forward to slash Heiwa, capitalizing on the former's own speed and momentum to completely reduce reaction time. "...Ridiculous." Mukūrō thought to himself. The sudden emergence of another Kamui portal threw him off slightly. Mukūrō's chakra permeated through his blade and, upon touching the portal that intended to absorb him, caused it to dismantle, leaving it completely moot. At that point, the emergence of Heiwa's clone from behind him caused Mukūrō to anger in response. "...You...need to lose already!" A sudden aura of chakra permeated from his being and sent a shockwave that managed to dispel the assaulting Shadow Clone. At this point, Mukūrō reversed the direction of his swing back to Heiwa's face. However, he used his left index finger to collect an incredibly dense quantity of chakra in a spherical form, sending it out in the form of a concentrated beam of emerald energy that intended to pierce through Heiwa's torso. "Phase one... Check." Heiwa spoke within his mindscape. Tengu had managed to eliminate his clone, yet he failed to remember the point-blank range between the two, as well as Heiwa's current... State. The blade and beam, as expected, simply passed through him without any sort of reaction from Heiwa, except a smug grin that encompassed his visage. His hands took physical form in a quick charge to grasp Tengu's arms, preventing any movements as he began to analyze the current situation of the battle. "I have to admit, you know how to give a guy a run for his money... You truly do. But I won't be giving up anytime soon, so if you think victory awaits you, you're sorely mistaken." he addressed the Tengu, his smug grin not seeming to falter. "Is this your grand plan? Sure wasted a lot of chakra didn't you?" Tengu scoffed at the man's attempts at defeating him. "Thank you, however." He stated, as a shroud of blue began surrounding him. "You clearly planned on giving me a good meal." Mukūrō didn't shift an inch, however, he did end up beginning the process of stealing chakra directly from Heiwa's body, in the hopes of reducing his reserves to a point where Kamui was a difficult option to consider: after all, he had already expended so much chakra just to get into contact with him. Heiwa quickly let go of Tengu's grasp as he felt his chakra dwindle down even more. Despite his chakra reserves, inherited from his heritage, his chakra had taken a toll in this match. The man's eyes began to switch back to the basic Sharingan as he backed away. His body assembled again a fair distance away from Tengu, as he unravelled a basic kunai hidden in his yukata. "Now we're gonna play a little game... It's called, 'Can Tengu Bleed That Way?'" the young Uchiha spoke, his hand held the kunai right infront of his face, though not hindering the view of Tengu. His eyes, with the perfect aim, analyzed Tengu's body, waiting for the right moment... "Finally reverting to base Sharingan? This man might be foolish, but he sure packs tonnes of chakra." Mukūrō sighed, looking upon Heiwa's position and accordingly placed his sword in front of him. He shifted his left foot backwards, keeping only his side profile open and thus reducing Heiwa's options should he throw the Kunai. "I didn't think individuals could bleed in more than one way, unless I was wrong, Lord Mizukage." "Oh, you'd be suprised..." uttered the young Kage. Heiwa's head leaned backwards with the kunai in his hand falling on the ground, as his shoulder-length hair fell backwards, gently swinging in the wind. In all but a single blink, he would appear right infront of Tengu, courtesy of the "marks" left behind when Heiwa grabbed the masked man, without a single second wasted, his head, which had accumulated force from leaning backwards, went crashing down to Tengu's mask, letting his eyes peak through the eyeholes of it and glancing at the eyes of the man behind the mask. He wanted to see who the man truly was, and was determined to find a way to bypass the mask. His chakra-signature felt familiar, but he could not pin-point it. However, he would not give the Tengu any chance to retaliate, vanishing into his previous location via the kunai thrown earlier. It was just the start of his little charade. "Ah." Mukūrō said deadpan as his incredible reflexes honed from fighting speed demons enabled him to shift his upper body downwards to the point where Heiwa's headbutt became useless. "Why am I not surprised...?" Mukūrō commented on Heiwa's maneuver as the man moved back to his original position. "His movements have become considerably narrowed. Maybe I can finish this now. God, Kazuhide and Zenjou-san would be very disappointed in me for dragging this for so long." Mukūrō sighed, as he pointed his sword directly in front of him. "You know what, just to fulfill your satisfaction, I shall tell you." Mukūrō said, taking off his mask and dispelling his transformation. "Mukūrō, Master of the Hōzuki Castle. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." Heiwa watched on as the man revealed his true colors, speechless to say the least. "Nibui aruji!?" he uttered in suprise. To be given a hard time by the master of the Blood Prison did strike his pride. A new emotion formed in Heiwa's visage, a deep anger as he glanced at him. His face barely showed it, but his eyes revealed it like an open book. He began to step forward, seemingly defenceless. Nonetheless, he was determined to finish this battle once and for all... "Take your best shot..." he uttered once more, his voice low-pitched and devoid of any emotion whatsoever. Mukūrō took a deep sigh. "You know," He began to say, his position had become slightly slouched and overall his demeanor was one of boredom. "I would. I totally would, trust me. But you were just too slow." Mukūrō told his enemy in the most humiliating way possible. "I've forced you to exert so much effort and you couldn't even get a proper injury against me...while most of my movements were simple counters. In a battle of attrition, or in a battle of skill, I've surpassed you by leaps and bounds. So..." Mukūrō turned around, lifting his left hand and waving it towards his former opponent. "I'm going to head out. I was planning on enjoying myself, but if all my opponents are of your standard I'm not going to care." Mukūrō's figure disappeared after a single step, heading towards the direction of his current refuge and source of both income and boredom. "How disrespectful..." he uttered, each word followed by multiple echoes in the background. In the moment in which he looked at the dull man, angry, his illusion, bestowed upon him by his ancestors, had been applied to his adversary. Countless images of the battle would spiral around the man, as Heiwa disappeared from sight, with only the voices that echo with each vowel that remain. "In the entire fight I had given great effort, nearly my all... I wanted to go toe-to-toe against someone who proves to be of my calibre, yet you attempt to mock me... I did not come here to just win, I came here to battle... Yet you just give me presumptions with your superiority complex. With all sincerety, Nibui Aruji, you lack all form of honor for me to give it your all, and unfortunately, I have now done the same with you." he spoke, his tone growing calmer and slower with each word. Mukūrō looked upon the visages of war that Heiwa had inflicted unto his mind — though he could hardly remember when — and sighed once more. It took nothing more than a sudden surge of chakra from his being to isolate and remove the foreign chakra at the same time, leaving the illusion shattering into pieces as he returned to the real world. His face had not met Heiwa's, but he talked to his opponent regardless. "Learn etiquette, Lord Mizukage." Mukūrō sheathed his blade, as the wind picked up slightly. "Isn't the point of this to learn from your mistakes?" And with that, his body had disappeared into the horizon, no longer could he be traced by his former enemy. The battle had ended on Mukūrō's side.